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Hockey Hall of Fame

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Hockey Hall of Fame

The Hockey Hall of Fame (French: Temple de la renommée du hockey) is a museum and hall of fame located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the history of ice hockey, it holds exhibits about players, teams, National Hockey League (NHL) records, memorabilia and NHL trophies, including the Stanley Cup. Founded in Kingston, Ontario, the Hockey Hall of Fame was established in 1943 under the leadership of James T. Sutherland. The first class of honoured members was inducted in 1945, before the Hall of Fame had a permanent location. It moved to Toronto in 1958 after the NHL withdrew its support for the International Hockey Hall of Fame in Kingston, Ontario, due to funding issues. Its first permanent building opened at Exhibition Place in 1961. The hall was relocated in 1993, and is now in downtown Toronto, inside Brookfield Place, and a historic Bank of Montreal building. The Hockey Hall of Fame has hosted International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) exhibits and the IIHF Hall of Fame since 1998.

An 18-person committee of players, coaches and others meets annually in June to select new honourees, who are inducted as players, builders or on-ice officials. In 2010, a subcategory was established for female players. The builders' category includes coaches, general managers, commentators, team owners and others who have helped build the game. Honoured members are inducted into the Hall of Fame in an annual ceremony held at the Hall of Fame building in November, which is followed by a special "Hockey Hall of Fame Game" between the Toronto Maple Leafs and a visiting team. As of May 2024, 299 players (including ten women), 115 builders and 16 on-ice officials have been inducted into the Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame has been criticized for focusing mainly on players from the National Hockey League and largely ignoring players from other North American and international leagues.

The Hockey Hall of Fame was established through the efforts of James T. Sutherland, a former president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA). Sutherland sought to establish it in Kingston, Ontario, as he believed that the city was the birthplace of hockey. In 1943, the NHL and CAHA reached an agreement that a Hall of Fame would be established in Kingston. Originally called the "International Hockey Hall of Fame", its mandate was to honour great hockey players and to raise funds for a permanent location. The first nine "honoured members" (players Hobey Baker, Charlie Gardiner, Eddie Gerard, Frank McGee, Howie Morenz, Tommy Phillips, Harvey Pulford, Hod Stuart and Georges Vezina) were inducted on April 30, 1945, although the Hall of Fame still did not have a permanent home. The first board of governors included hockey executives Red Dutton, Art Ross, Frank Sargent, and Lester Patrick; and journalists Abbie Coo, Wes McKnight, Basil O'Meara, J. P. Fitzgerald, and W. A. Hewitt.

Kingston lost its most influential advocate as permanent site of the Hockey Hall of Fame when Sutherland died in 1955. By 1958, the Hockey Hall of Fame had still not raised sufficient funds to construct a permanent building in Kingston. Clarence Campbell, then President of the NHL, grew tired of waiting for the construction to begin and withdrew the NHL's support to situate the hall in Kingston. In January 1958, the NHL and the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) reached an agreement to establish a new Hall of Fame building in Toronto, and Frank J. Selke was named managing director of the project.

The temporary Hockey Hall of Fame opened as an exhibit within Canada's Sports Hall of Fame at Exhibition Place in August 1958, and 350,000 people visited it during the 1958 CNE fair. Due to the success of the exhibit, NHL and CNE decided that a permanent home in the Exhibition Place was needed. The NHL agreed to fully fund the building of the new facility on the grounds of Exhibition Place, and construction began in 1960.

The first permanent Hockey Hall of Fame, which shared a building with the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame, was opened on August 26, 1961, by Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker. Over 750,000 people visited the Hall in its inaugural year. Admission to the Hockey Hall of Fame was free until 1980, when the Hockey Hall of Fame facilities underwent expansion.

By 1986, the Hall of Fame was running out of room in its existing facilities and the board of directors decided that a new home was needed. The Hall vacated the Exhibition Place building in 1992, and its half was taken over by the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. The building was eventually demolished; portion of its façade was preserved as an entrance to BMO Field stadium. Development of the new location in the BCE Place complex (now Brookfield Place, featuring the former Bank of Montreal at the corner of Yonge and Front Streets in Toronto, began soon after. The design was by Frank Darling and S. George Curry. The new Hockey Hall of Fame officially opened on June 18, 1993. The new location has 4,700 m2 (50,600 sq ft) of exhibition space, seven times larger than that of the old facility. The Hockey Hall of Fame averaged an annual attendance of 292,000 between 1994 and 2019.

The first curator of the new Hall of Fame was Bobby Hewitson. Following Hewitson's retirement in 1967, Lefty Reid was appointed to the position. Reid was curator of the Hockey Hall of Fame for the next 25 years, retiring in 1992. Following Reid's retirement, former NHL referee-in-chief Scotty Morrison, who was the president of the Hockey Hall of Fame since 1986, was appointed curator. Morrison supervised the relocation of the Hall of Fame and its exhibits. The current curator is Phil Pritchard.

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